Temples of North India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Temples of North India
Author: Krishna Deva
Publisher: National Book Trust, 2005 (First published 1969)
ISBN: 8123719701
Pages: 83

India is richly endowed with a fine variety of magnificent temples of different architectural styles. There are predominantly two schools of temple construction, based in the north and south of the country but equally impressive and artistically fulfilling. This book covers the temples of north India, focusing on the nagara style. We can see them as far south as the Tungabhadra valley. Despite a basic homogeneity in essential aspects, the various regional styles followed their own course of evolution. This book describes the development of various temple styles in the period from the seventh to twelfth centuries. Krishna Deva was the former director of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and later director of the Birla Academy of Art, Kolkata. He was an eminent scholar of art and architecture and had made several significant archeological explorations in the country. He had worked with great archeologists like Aurel Stein and Mortimer Wheeler. Having organized the Temple Survey Project (Northern Region) of the ASI, he conducted a systematic architectural survey of the temples of north India in general and central India in particular.

The temple as we see it today developed during the Gupta period (400 – 700 CE) though simpler constructions that are much older goes back to the Maurya period (200 BCE). The concept of kingship as a viable form of political organisation became well developed in the Gupta period so that the deity in the temple was thought to represent a divine king in the spiritual domain. The abode of the king is the royal palace and hence the temple acquired characteristic features of the palace adapted to the new purpose for which they were being implemented. The early temples contained a simple, square sanctum and a rectangular pillared porch as seen in the remains of such a temple at Sanchi. From the beginning of the seventh century, the sanctum began to be roofed by a tall, curvilinear spire called shikhara.

The construction of an intricately carved temple required such a large investment in men, money and resources that ordinary people or even merchant guilds could not manage it on their own. Consequently, major dynasties took part in the venture as a display of their might and to underline their right to govern the kingdom as being sanctioned by the gods. Temples in central and north India up to the Gupta era were largely made of timber or other perishable material. Dressed stone was introduced at this stage. This increased the durability as no remains of timber were unearthed so far, yet stone temples of the period are so numerous. The development of Bhakti cult as the devotion to a personalized god in the Gupta age led to establishment of an ambulatory path around the sanctum in the extant architecture. The Chalukyas (500 – 750 CE) contributed their part in temple building in the south, but following nagara style of the north. The highly ornate temples of the Hoysala period as evidenced in the magnificent temples at Belur and Halebid was an offshoot of the Chalukyan school. The Pratihara dynasty (eighth - ninth centuries CE) who ruled from Kanauj, instituted a unique style in central and northern India. The group of temples at Naresar near Gwalior is the earliest example of Pratihara style.

The book is divided into chapters that examine local variations in the architecture. The temples in Rajasthan are well known for their exquisite organisation, but from the twelfth century onwards, the style loses its individuality and neatly merges into the Solanki style. The climax of the medieval architecture of the Rajasthan and Solanki styles was reached in the Dilwara group of Jain temples at Mount Abu. The author is an expert on central Indian temples and a large number of references and examples are made to this region. Between the tenth and twelfth centuries, the Kalachuri dynasty kept the torch burning in the eastern part of central India, Chandellas in the central part, Paramaras in the western part and Kachchhapaghatas in the north.

Khajuraho richly deserves and finds a prominent place in the narrative. These breathtakingly beautiful structures mark the zenith of the central Indian building style and reveal certain distinctive peculiarities of plan and elevation. They are compact and lofty temples without any enclosure wall and are erected on a high platform. The peak is reached in the Kandariya Mahadev Temple, which represents the grand finale and culmination of architectural movement. The north Indian style was followed in a large tract of Deccan plateau as well. In the upper Deccan, between the rivers Tapti and Krishna, flourished an individual style of northern architecture. The early notable achievements of this stream are seen in Ajanta and Ellora. This Deccani style was named Bhumija and is widely seen in the central and western parts of India. The book also covers the grand temples of Odisha due to their spectacular individuality. Bhubaneshwar, with about 100 temples is the pre-eminent centre of the Odisha style. The spire of a typical Odishan temple has an almost vertical outline with a pronounced curve only near the top.

The tolerance, peaceful coexistence and mutual assimilation of Indian religions are legendary and a pleasing instance is observed in the seamless overlap of architecture and motifs of Hindu and Jain temples. In some places, you can see them existing side by side with the devotees not making any distinction between them. They follow the same architectural patterns and style to such a level that many devotees cannot even tell them apart. Even the religious motifs of one faith permeate the other’s art as seen in a fine example at Khajuraho. The Parshwanath Jain temple bears significant kinship to the Vaishnava Lakshmana temple a little distance away in displaying among its sculptures a predominance of Vaishnava themes, including scenes from the romantic life of Krishna. Another aspect of the Indian temple architectural style should strike the readers as something extraordinary, even though it is not enumerated in the text. The styles of the north and south of India differ very much in appearance and content, but the flowering of the method occurred at around the same time, during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries CE, across the country.

The book is very short, at only 83 pages with an index, but each page is filled with so much information of a technical nature that some readers would definitely find tedious. But, this book assumes a general familiarity of the readers to architectural terms. No glossary is included. An introductory chapter on the technical terms with illustrations would do wonders to the book’s utility. Many ancient temples, representing specific instances of the development of art are listed and readers are advised to search for the pictures on Google for a hands-on idea. This book was first published in 1969 and several editions and reprints have been effected. This may be the reason why the cover page is wrongly attributed. The page displays the Kandariya Mahadev Temple of Khajuraho, but is indicated as the Sun Temple of Konark.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

 

Temples of South India

Title: Temples of South India

Author: K R Srinivasan

Publisher: National Book Trust India, 1985 (First published 1971)

ISBN: 9788123722511 (not this edition)

Pages: 246

South India is a land of magnificent temples built in stone. Temples of the Chalukya, Hoysala and Vijayanagara period fills thousands of visitors with wonder, while those of Cholas and Pallavas make them awe-struck. South India’s temple architecture is quite unique and is in marked contrast with that of the North. Srinivasan tells the story of the evolution of the temples and the characteristics of each stage. Temple construction generally follows the raw material available at each location. The Vijayanagara kings used granite available locally in plenty, and in Kerala, laterite was the prime choice. However, we also see subtle shifts like the soap stone temples of Hoysalas giving way to Vijayanagara’s granite. Even with all these, the South Indian temple architecture is chronologically uninterrupted. K R Srinivasan has served over two decades in the Archeological Survey of India, in various capacities at the highest levels. One of the fields of his specialization was temple architecture, sculpture and iconography.

The earliest form of divine worship began in the form of totems. Ruling houses adopted various trees as sacred, and Sangam literature show abundant proof of cutting down the totem tree of the vanquished house in battle. Hypaethral shrines (having no roof) developed around these trees. Was it a coincidence that the worship of the Bodhi tree, known as Bodhi Chaitya, quickly took root in the South? Ashoka’s inscriptions witness to the fact that Buddhist influence was largely limited to the present states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Viable and tolerant kingdoms existed to the further south, and Buddhism found a fertile field to spread its roots. Railings began to appear around the object of worship under the tree, which was later transformed into the cloister galleries surrounding the central shrine and its vimana (tower). Brick, wood and mortar shrines were built in place of the simple objects of worship as time went on. Mayon (Vishnu), Seyon (Murugan, Karthikeya) and Korravai (Durga), who were the principal deities of the Tamil country, were assimilated into the Hindu pantheon, with the new names given in brackets. Rock-cut architecture developed around the middle of the first millennium CE. This assumed epic dimensions under the Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas in Deccan. While soft stone was generally used there in this period, granite or gneiss was the favourite medium of artistic expression in the Deep South. Deccan also followed suit only during the Vijayanagara period. Pallavas excelled in this new medium, as attested by the glorious monuments at Mamallapuram. After 730 CE, when the Pallava power declined, rock-cut architecture also parted ways with the main stream. Objects of worship also underwent a sea change, progressing from mural paintings on the innermost wall to idols of stone or metal.

Srinivasan includes an exemplary narrative on the structural stone temples that came into vogue towards the end of the 8^th century CE. The familiar figure of the dancing Nataraja, which is now practically an icon of India, took shape in this period. The characteristic anadathandavam pose was first observed in the Tiruvaliswaram panel of 890 CE. The author states that most likely the pose was represented first as a wooden idol, but was first captured in stone in 890 CE. As rock-cut temples faded away, an enclosing wall was required for protection for structural stone temples. Towers (gopura) outshining the central one over the sanctum sanctorum (vimana) appeared by 11^th century CE. Parts of the vimana became standardized in architectural texts as adhishtana (moulded base), pada or bhitti (pillar or walls), prastara (entablature with kapota or cornice), griva (neck or clerestory), sikhara (root) and stupi (finial). The period up to late medieval phase is divided into three parts. The first one saw construction of structural temples at Pattadakkal and other northern areas. Then came the second phase when Chola marvels came up at Thanjavur and other places in Tamil Nadu. The Hoysalas continued their tradition with soft stone while the royal Cholas were writing poetry in hard granite and charnockite. The final stage saw the budding of Vijayanagara style in which hard stone, which was abundantly available at their capital at Hampi was used. Befitting the style deserving an empire, Vijayanagara propagated the transition from soft to hard stone. The book also includes a good discussion on the prasada temples built in North Indian style. These are, of course, distinct from Dravida architecture, but are themselves much different from specimens found in North India proper. The book ends with a chapter on Kerala temple architecture, which is replete with laterite stone available in the area and whose gables are more adaptive to heavy rains, which is a feature of the western littoral.

We know that a picture is worth a thousand words. K R Srinivasan doesn’t seem to subscribe to this view. Where an illustration would do wonders at comprehension, he proceeds with torturous verbal description of the architectural features, which is difficult to assimilate. Such plays of words confuse the readers, whereas an illustration would have served the purpose in no time. Monochrome plates of several South Indian temples are included, but serves no real purpose. Historically, many temples were destroyed by Muslim invasions, and true to the pseudo-secular traits inherited from the powerful caucus that ruled over historical research in India, Srinivasan struggles for euphemisms to describe the devastating ruin inflicted on several temples. Instead of writing simply as ‘Muslim invasion’, he does an acrobatic act and comes up with ‘political invasion by iconoclastic rulers of alien faith’ (p.170)! Leftist historians are afraid even to assign religious reasons for the invasions of medieval fanatic sultans! India’s so called secular scholars are extremely reluctant to stare right in the face of truth and fondly go for such pedantic nonsense. The book includes a fine glossary which is highly useful and an excellent index. The book is difficult for the average reader to easily move forward.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 2 Star